


Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights?

by Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw



Series: February Ficlet Challenge 2018 [20]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Darkness, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-22 02:16:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13754160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw/pseuds/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw
Summary: There are no Vashta Nerada in this story.Fluff, now...There is fluff.Pairing: Eighth Doctor/Charley PollardPrompt: Trapped in the Dark





	Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights?

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by imaginary_golux

"Charley?!" The Doctor's voice was muffled, as if he was speaking through a layer of cloth. "Don't be alarmed, but it appears the TARDIS has shut off all the lights again."

"Again?" The idea that turning off all the lights was a known bug was a fact almost as confounding as the complete blackness in which Charley found herself as she groped her way towards the Doctor.

"Look it's either we need to reboot the pan-kinetic circuit, or she's in a snit. Or a fault in the pan-kinetic circuit has put her in a snit." The Doctor's voice had grown clearer and louder as he spoke until finally he was at her ear.

They went to the ground with an oof. Charley felt the Doctor's weight atop her where it had driven the breath from her lungs, felt the waves of his hair brushing her cheeks, the jut of the sonic screwdriver into her hip. "Terribly sorry, my dear Charley," he murmured, leaving her lips a-tingle from the cultivated warmth of his breath. "My range of vision hasn’t dipped into the infrared since my sixth body. And you know, I have no idea what could have happened to cause it. Perhaps I’m just getting old.” They wriggled about, untangling their arms, until, with a whirr and a hum, the sonic screwdriver began to shine with a dull red light, revealing just how close their faces were. “Ah. And here we are.” 

Charley was momentarily plunged back into darkness as, with preternatural grace, the Doctor swung himself up and off of her. “You’re young as ever, Doctor,” she teased him. “So, shall we fix up the pan-kin-wotsit?” 

“I suppose we’d better. Hard to see the controls without even the emergency power.”

“Well, that tears it. Suppose I should keep my eyes open for some candles.”

“Yes, that would be--you aren’t having me on, are you?” She could practically hear him pout; she wanted to kiss it from his mouth.

“Me? Josh you? Never.” Her voice betrayed her smile. “Here, take my hand--we don’t want a reprise of the Pollard Family Tumblers.”

“I think you’d make a keen acrobat,” the Doctor offered gallantly as he took her hand. Why did this feel different from all those times they had pressed palm to palm when they were on the run?

“Not much chance of adventure with us stuck here in the dark, is there?” It wasn’t the darkness or the tight TARDIS corridors--Lord only knew they’d been trapped in tight spaces before.

“Not unless the Vashta Nerada have managed to seep into the TARDIS, which I seriously doubt.”

“Oh, and why is that? Good old impenetrable TARDIS?”

“Well, that too. Mostly because if there were Vashta Nerada aboard, we’d have been reduced to empty bones by now.”

“You know just what to tell a girl to make her feel better,” Charley groused as they felt their way along. As it happened, they did find a few candles and a lantern on their way to the nearest maintenance hatch. The Doctor only barked his knee on the table holding one of them. “Quite cozy down here,” she noted off-handedly in the dim yellow flickering. 

“Mm, I suppose so,” the Doctor said without replying, his attention focused on the task at hand. Charley sighed; she supposed it was unfair to compete with his first love. “Ah!” 

“Is that it, then?” 

“Burnt my thumb,” he corrected her, holding it out for useless inspection in the low light. Just as instinctively, she leaned in and kissed it. “Thank you, Charley, much better,” he replied, his eyes surprisingly bright despite the dimness. “Aaaand...that’s it. Unfortunately, it’ll take a few hours to reboot.” He stretched, letting Charley appreciate the fact that his jacket and cravat were in a pile on the floor. “Do you fancy a nap? I haven’t had one in a month--reckon I’m about due. Usually dreadfully boring, but as there’s little else to do--” Little else to do involving me and a bed, Charley thought, but she wasn’t one to pass up a perfectly good cuddle. “--I thought we might start there and see where things go from there.” Well, hello. Her extremely liberal nineteen-thirties sensibilities liked the sound of that.

“That sounds lovely, Doctor.” She craned her head about. “I think I saw a bedroom back that way.” 

“Perfect,” the Doctor enthused, and soon enough he was curled up around and behind her. “Sleep well, Charley.”

“Sleep tight, Doctor. Don’t let the Vashta Nerada bite.”

“Don’t worry, I shan’t,” he promised, and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.


End file.
